SoftBank is yet again increasing its stake in New York-based workspace sharing company WeWork though the investment is significantly smaller than what SoftBank had reportedly been considering Reports in The New York Times on Monday Jan 7 said SoftBank added 2 billion to its investment in WeWork three unnamed sources said valuing the company at 47 billion and topping SoftBanks total funding in the company at 105 billion 6 billion of which came in the last six months Theyre our closest partner and theyve been extremely supportive said WeWork President Artie Minson of SoftBank in an interview with the publication However the 2 billion addition is far smaller than what SoftBank was reportedly considering The sources told reporters that SoftBank was exploring a deal that could have topped 16 billion in an additional investment in WeWork in a bid that would have bought out WeWorks other backers While the sources did not reveal why SoftBank pulled back on those plans NY Times noted that technology companies are increasingly reluctant to accept investments from Saudi Arabia where SoftBanks Vision Fund is based following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi While a significant portion of SoftBanks investment in WeWork stems from that Vision Fund the latest investment comes directly from SoftBank itself WeWork said last summer that it had more than 250 000 paying members of its on-demand workspace rental service at the time with plans to broaden its enterprise operations and lease office space to conglomerates like Salesforce and Amazon According to reports though the company continued to outspend posting a 723 million loss in the first half of 2017 Senior Analyst Alex Snyder of real estate investment firm CenterSquare told NY Times that WeWorks 47 billion valuation is going to take a significant amount of growth to justify it They are vastly outspending their cash flow position to sustain their growth he continued You can do that as long as people are willing to give you the money SoftBanks own shares in its Japan-based mobile operations declined after its recent initial public offering IPO reports noted LATEST INSIGHTS Our data and analytics team has developed a number of creative methodologies and frameworks that measure and benchmark the innovation thats reshaping the payments and commerce ecosystem Check out the latest PYMNTS Digital Drive Report B2B B2B Payments funding growth investments ipo mobile News OFFICE SPACE saudi arabia softbank stocks WeWork Whats Hot In B2B Workspace